By Charlie Pogacar
When Dave Portnoy walked into A Slice of New York in Murrysville, Pennsylvania, on September 4, 2024, it was a life altering moment for the shop’s owner, Sean Jefairjian. The immediate impact of Portnoy’s 8.2 rating was dramatic: Jefairjian said year-over-year sales jumped 200-300%.
While things have cooled off since, the shop’s numbers still hover high above previous norms. “Now it seems like it’s just up 50% in perpetuity,” Jefairjian said on the latest episode of Peel: A PMQ Pizza Podcast. “Every month is basically the same number, and it’s 50% higher than [before].”
The jump in sales has changed Jefairjian’s operation beyond finance, too. In the months that followed, Jefairjian simplified almost everything. The menu snapped back to its original core: pizza, garlic knots and meatballs. He invested in higher-level talent, bringing in an experienced pizza maker, Corbin Waligura, to stabilize the back of house. He shifted his own role from being on the line every day to working more “on the business,” while still keeping regular shifts so he stayed close to the product and the team.
Most importantly, the Portnoy moment gave him something rare: the breathing room to rethink how the business worked. That rethink led to an unexpected pivot, one toward frozen sourdough dough.
Originally developed so his brother could run a second location without having to make dough from scratch, the project evolved into a wholesale business of its own. Working with Greco Foods, Jefairjian figured out how to freeze and ship his sourdough recipe without, in his opinion, sacrificing quality. He now uses that same frozen dough in his own shop, saying customers can’t tell the difference. Jefairjian reports that the operational upside has been massive.
“No more 6 or 7 a.m. dough shifts,” Jefairjian said. “No flour in the air. No cleanup. We saved a ton on labor, a ton on time—and now we’re open more days.”
The ripple effects even reached his family. His 21-year-old son, Dylan, helped develop the sourdough formula and now earns royalties on it while he studies culinary management and planning a future beyond pizza.
Then came a surreal full-circle moment: the One Bite Pizza Fest in New York City. A Slice of New York was one of 40 shops on site for the third iteration of Portnoy’s annual event.
Jefairjian calls it the highlight of his professional life—like being invited to Ozzfest alongside all your heroes at once. But what mattered most wasn’t the crowd or the content. It was watching his 70-year-old father spend the day in the booth, handing out slices, visibly proud.
For Jefairjian, that’s the real story behind the Portnoy Effect. It wasn’t just the moment the review went live, or the immediate sales bump thereafter. It was something that changed his and his family’s lives forever—in both expected and unexpected ways.
To hear the full story, listen to the full podcast at one of the following links:
